Just plain lazy...

I have been wondering most of the afternoon what to blog about, and while a few things come to mind, it's now 3am - the time when I should be done with my blog and getting into bed - and I'm too tired to be funny.

Just spent the last hour and a half trying to get a PSN Trophy for Mushroom Wars that I already had. Trust me I'm pissed about it too! Will get to work on the real trophy I was aiming for tomorrow. Don't know if I'm going to the office tomorrow, going out sailing with my boss or just staying at home watching this weeks TV since I did not bother when any of it was new.

Until tomorrow friends, I'll be clever then.

Song of the moment... got nothing, going to the pretty place where the flowers grow, I'll be back in 8 hours or so.

The Neighborhood... emphasis on hood

I live in a town where the most notable land mark is something we affectionately call the Ypsi penis. I live in a town where the local bar has a door handle 4 inches below where the standard door knob sits. I asked this question one of an old bar crony when I was barely a regular and was told that Ypsilanti used to have the largest number of midgets per capita. This owing to the plants that were around town and for some reason the smaller type person was more suited for some of them.

I live in Downtown Ypsilanti Michigan, where the historical district is really just a series of old brick buildings that have been turned into something else. Many of them make a person feel like they are looking at snipits of Downtown Detroit with big stone facades and empty buildings. Bums sit on the corner of Michigan Ave, and ask for change and cigarettes of the bar patrons. I happen to live 1 block from 4 bars, and 2 blocks from 1 bar.

Things can sometimes get weird around here. By weird I mean the friend of mine who helped me move to the neighborhood going crazy and blocking off 5 lanes of traffic with 4 traffic cones and a conga drum.

By weird I mean this....
The dead monkey I saw laying face down on the sidewalk next to the "corner store" that was to be seen minutes after I'd passed it being rocked back and forth by some odd looking woman. By weird I mean what's going on in the apartment behind my house...

A few weeks ago we ran into our land lord which was good, because that meant I didn't have to go to drop off the check to him. He told us someone would be moving in and sharing our back door - a person I've seen once, but I am not entirely sure that he's moved into this mysterious and supposed back door unit. A few days go by and I notice this oddly constructed wagon that had at least 6ft of 2x4's running along it, with a dolly that is attached to one end for wheeling and some torturous looking pieces with nails that protruded from the top. Purpose unknown. I'd seen it a few days later with smaller chops of wood being cradled in the protrusions. Okay... so I found this odd, have no idea whats going on but as the rain progressed I noticed it was no longer swimming in the pond that is our back driveway and was broken down and standing upright leaning against the side of the building. Okay - whatever he'd been doing with it, he'd done and now it was just to be around if needed.

Then things got even more odd. A bike appeared with a kart on the back. Looks like a smaller version of a hotdog cart - sans umbrella and the tasty treats, thats been put on bicycle wheels and attached to a bike for pulling.

Then the little blue Honda arrived. I didn't see it get here, I came home from work and it was backed into the spot next to where my brother parks and all the windows were down. I thought maybe it was from the members of the AA meeting in the house next door that take up our parking daily and make massive amounts of noise. Next day I get home from the office and this car is filled to the brim almost with big black trash bags - windows still down... wondering what's going on in there? Then a day later the bags are all gone, the windows have been rolled up - smart as we'd had torrential weather 3 days in a row - and the car looks normal again.

I've seen the guy in question once or twice. He whistles odd things and is oblivious to anyone being around. Has long hair and looks like the standard Ann Arbor Hippie and has a unique side pack that seems to be doubling as almost a traveling tool belt. I heard an electric saw moments before I saw him last, but still - I got nothing on whats going on in there.

That's when the shit started to appear. Came home and there was shit in the car, this time toys and random articles, milk crates, a lamp, a very ugly clay vase; no one was monitoring them and then they were gone. Not in the stolen sense of gone, but just poof gone. A day later the random assortment of items were back, but now they are sitting against the brick wall covered in plastic painters drop cloth. A day later - they're back in the car. Day after that they are back on the wall. I would assume they are back on the wall because now there is a full mattress set sitting on top of the car. Honestly - I'm wondering what the fuck?

Day passes, the Mattresses are still on the car, the items are on the wall, the long haired Hippie has not been seen. Then suddenly the mattresses are gone by the time I left for the office. Came home and they were back on top of the car. I'm starting to wonder if this apartment is the housing version of Mary Poppins' magic carpet bag. Things can go in and out and no matter how big you never know how it's happening.

As it stands now, the mattresses are gone again, and the vast majority of "stuff" (I'll be polite and call it stuff) is sitting on the trunk of the car or the ground around it covered with the plastic drop cloth with milk crates of more stuff holding the drop cloth down. Or it is sitting next to the wall uncovered.

This mystery is really making me wonder about my very eccentric land lord - and my new neighbor. Never know when that moment will come when I'll step out the back door to find a stuffed Kodiak or something. Go figure.

Song of the Moment: Thousand Foot Krutch "Broken Wing" Album: Flame in all of Us

The Music... has a page!

I'm still working on the genius I've got in mind behind the music of my blog. No I'm not talking VH1.

I'm what I think I should called an audiophile in training. I do have a lot of music, my life is a streaming playlist of a lot of music. Everything from metal to country. At the end of my posts you'll notice I add a song of the moment. Whatever's stuck in my head at the moment. I'm looking for an appropriate widget for the playlist so that it can hang out on the face of my blog and give you my reader(s) the option of listening to the songs that I post. Have I found that widget that will let you listen to the whole song.. now, but I did find a link that will let me give you my playlist for your listening pleasure. So Checkout the page at the top that says "The Music" and enjoy

Song I'm listening to right now... The Script "The Man who can't be moved" Album "The Script"

On the ZEfron Train.

I've been holding out. "17 Again" was good for me because Zac Efron is so freakin' charming and adorable he's irresistible. Bestest #1 and I made "Charlie St. Cloud" our movie of the week for $6 tuesday and yes as much of a cry fest as it is, I walked away feeling like a dirty old woman for wanting to hump the leg of the believably (yes, I said that right) sexy Zac Efron. He's grown into his manly-ness and I give him 2 more years before he's so filled out that he'll make everyone woman jump on the gravy train.

I'm a resister. Won't admit to liking pop culture fads as the people who tend to like them annoy the shit out of me. However, "Charlie St. Cloud" was such a good movie that now a movie may be a contender just because the billing says Zac Efron. "17 Again" was adorable. Brought back to me memories of "Friends" in it's first 2 seasons when it was more than pop culture, but good. But it was the ZEfron that made the movie exceptionally adorable and worth seeing more than once just for the feel good. "Charlie St. Cloud" was more than able when it came to being emotionally satisfying as well as a plot twist that me... the one who predicts everything didn't see it coming until 5 minutes before the reveal.

I'll admit it. I'm not ashamed to say that if it were possible Zac Efron would be on the Pretzel list -as in a man I'd be willing to pull a full on Sandra Bullock from "2 Weeks Notice" Bobcat Pretzel for. I hate the emo hair cut on anyone and I'd let him go bald, go it 3 feet long or anywhere in between because his adorable/adorkablity is off the charts... And here is one really good reason why... the ZEfron is fucking sexy... young or not at 22 he's got a body I'd climb like a tree trunk and I'm over being not willing to admit it. Why you ask... here's why... happy trails to you....

He's entered my ranks of Jensen Ackles & Jeffrey Dean Morgan where I just wish I was the t-shirt he's wearing...

Song in my head at the moment: Script "Breakeven" Album "The Script"

Blogger thinks I need Jesus

My religious views not withstanding, I was browsing blogs via the "Next Blog" button and the first 5 were family blogs - come see with Chrissy did with the cat this week, 2 were shopping-esque but mostly baby related and the rest were all religious. I got to one that wouldn't even let me hit the next blog button because it had disappeared! Post after post was telling me I needed Jesus. One was a Catholic wife and mother of 7. One was about the Jewish faith, another told me to follow the Watch Tower - I get those passed at me by everyone from the lady to delivers the News Paper to my office to the woman who remembers me in the grocery store from the one time she came to convert me on THANKS GIVING! (Still jaded sorry)

I didn't know that the Blogger had a stance on my religion, but apparently this morning it thinks I need Jesus. He & I are already copacetic so I'm going to go have a smoke & go back to bed.

Still ramblin' around my head is Taproot's "I" Album: "Gift", if you've not heard it, check out my boys! They are local and awesome!

Blogging - who knew

I have a best friend who follows the blogs of like 25 people. I like to have the things I say put down for the world to read but she is pretty hard core about checkin' in with her blogs. Then again this gives her the worlds gossip, news on the newest hotties, whats new in media, etc. She's a monster of a media whore and I don't fault her for it. I'm normally the one saying "Did you know so and so was dating? When the fuck did this shit happen?" then out of nowhere she looks at me like I'm a massive idiot and says "Dude, they're married, I think have 2 kids by now."

I can't say I don't care about things going on in the media but I'm not an information whore on things like who's dating whom from Twilight. What band is back together. What celeb is going to jail tomorrow for back taxes... I just never really cared about it.

Now I want to actively blog, to give myself an outlet and something to do when the mind races at a hoe-gillion (technical term I swear) miles a minute in the middle of the night. I don't follow Twitter as closely as I'd like because I end up following the people who Tweet 30 thousand times a day. Literally. I know people who will tweet 35 times in a row about nonsensical things and pretend that they were just filling in blanks. I can't follow Kevin Smith anymore for just that reason. I guess it's like Formspring for me, I don't get the point. How many people can care about having their life down to 140 characters or questions? If you're a celebrity I can understand Formspring being cool for your fans. It's open forum of the greatest kind to just throw out all the shit that anyone has ever wanted to ask. Granted for them that is a lot of work to answer all of those questions, but what purpose does it serve for the average person?

I Facebook - no lie I'm a bit of a Facebook whore. I post random videos, funny things here and there and the update of my life at the moment, but even then unless I'm so amped up I can't sleep, bored to tears or I have 30 unrelated things I want to say I don't update more than 5 times a day. I don't Facebook while I'm at work, and I don't do a good enough job of trolling the internet to have that much to post. I wish I could to better but today (in the last 24 hours leading up to now)- and having been home almost all day I have shared one tidbit (Travis Pastrana related) from XGames, posted one video from Youtube, had 2 status updates (one of which asking what I should blog about tonight), made 2 old friends, and managed completely on accident to make one Farmcrack share (Farmville to the rest of you. It's crack, I can't stop playing the damn thing!) I have friends that will post pictures all day, tell the world what they've had for all 3 meals of the day (with photos), inform us they were going to shower... you know who you are... and the like. I'd rather be quippy and have something fun to share rather than turn my life into a status update. Don't get me started on 4 Square, Gowalla and the like.

However, I Buzzed all morning and got to the point where I had to walk away because I didn't want to be that person who is sitting there and after a post or two finds myself having conversations through the comment logs. I think one of my posts today had 16 comm-versations (new word - Comment Conversations = Commversations), sadly one of the prime contributors is my brother and the other was his co-worker and they were in the same building.

Do I have to be an over sharer to be a good blogger? What do people want to read about? Are my Rants Ramblings & Revelries enough to maybe create a following? We will see. But for now, Ramble on!

Song in my head at the moment - Taproot "I" (Album - Gift)

Good Bye Sweet X-Games... Good bye.

Every year I look forward to X Games. It's my summer highlight. I got into it oddly enough the same year they started FMX and it would also be the year that the one and only Travis Pastrana came to the big show. I had a crush on him then in 1999, and I've still got a crush on him.

Hail the Wonderboy #199

This year I think a lot of big things happened. I'm not a fan of the super condensed format, because we did lose a lot of things that used to be cool about Summer X. No more Wake, no more Surf, no more Roller blading. No more Dirt for BMX, no more Moto-X and thankfully no more Super Cross - it didn't translate. There were only 3 dedicated events for women this year, only one of which gets primary billing in the television coverage. The entire event is crammed into 4 days, and now has even been cut from ABC having coverage. Show times ranged from 1-2 pm to 4 or 5pm with a 2 hour break for the early evening Sports Center, and PTI then coverage again from 7-11pm - for those of us on the East Coast.

I get that things have to progress, because if there's one word that X-treme sports athletes know it's progression, but unfortunately I feel it's been molded and defined for television. I love that technology has pushed us to the point of having 3D television, but you can't take some of the coolest stuff like the Skateboard Big Air Rail Jam and only put it on ESPN 3D! That was killing me. Luckily they wasted a lot of time airing things I'd seen the previous day (aired again for the jackassed posers who don't go at it hard core) and then showed the last 16 minutes of the Rail Jam. If not I'd have missed Bob go huge with that 50/50 body varial or whatever he & Tony Hawk are calling it. What gets ratings stays, and what doesn't will go. I understand it because I wish that Street would go, it's boring as hell to watch even if Tony Hawk & Sal Masekela are commentating. Chris Pastras really burned my biscuits this year because he's not a well tuned "field" reporter. I know Kier Dillon wasn't great either when he showed up, but he upped his game by the end of his first games.

Let's talk about Rally having the EPIC of all PHAIL! The rally course could have been very cool, but it was just too confusing for it to count where it should have. The majority of the winners in Rally heats won by default because the other driver went the wrong way. 1 - label the course more recognizably if you are going to take away the co-driver. 2 - the street portion of the course was too small and didn't allow for there to be time for the dust to settle so a driver could see the course as they enter the coliseum. 3 - Time of day would really weigh in on how the course bakes. If you water it to help reduce the dust and allow for traction, would you not expect that the summer sun in L.A of all places would not bake it to death? and 4 - How is it possible that people who were seeded best got the least amount of practice?? Pastrana went out there for his elimination round and it was the second time he'd been on the course. That's just stupid.

The Street course was horrible. The spacing of the entire deck was off. Riders and skaters seemed to be having problems controlling gaps knowing there's only so much you can do with a 6 foot gap and your next trick is on the coffee cup like it or not. Transitions were hard because you have the front and the back but you can't mix it up too much because you don't plan out a street run like you would a vert run. Wasn't cool and was boring as hell. Adding SK8 - the Skaters version of Horse was cool. I've seen it done in parking lots, but this had serious potential had the street course been better laid out. Maybe Miami is not the place to model a street course anymore. It's bad enough the X Games is only in LA now, but lets take what may have worked in Miami and make some dudes reconstruct it to force suckage in LA... AWESOME!

Putting Vert in the Nokia Theatre is cool, and allowed for more room at the Staples Center for Moto-X events (Best Trick, Step-up (getting boring), Best Whip (weak - in a session style WHAT?), & Speed & Style. Using the L.A Coliseum is a great venue, though it seemed to have posed the most problems by not thinking things through. 1- By putting FMX & Rally there you opened a host of issues. a) the placement of the sun throughout events. - When you're flying above the crowds after hitting a 70+ foot kicker and the sun comes just over the edge of the Coliseum that's blinding and could make it hard to see a landing. and b) the drop in is so steep it's almost blind. 2 - Travis Pastrana alone kicks up too much dust to have the Mega Ramp outside on the same course. At least when it was in Staples Center the wind is not a factor - factor for dust or a factor for blowing mega ramp skaters slightly off course. Having to cover the Mega Ramp then uncover and clean it is too much to handle. Then complicate having it outside by the potential for condensation as the night air cools is a dangerous. If Danny Way is thinking twice - situations could be serious.

There were a lot of glitchy moments this year and that's for sure, but it didn't change the fact that I think every minute of X is a moment to look back and say WOW! Some of these kids are younger than the event it's self with Curren Caples knocking down doors in skate at only 14 years old & Pedro Barros taking home Gold from a 2 time winning veteran being only 15.

If you wanna know more, poke around this place. Facts & features are cool, and there's always a good break down of what went on. Videos, pictures, highlights & more check out XGames.com

Anyway, I'm sad it's over - I can go back to Twitter & Facebook without getting things ruined by those who were there live & giving shit away. Follow for your sanity, XGames: @XGames, Tony Hawk : @TonyHawk, Bob Burnquist: @BobBurnquist (though it's often not in english!), Travis Pastrana: @TravisPastrana (He's not much of a tweeter but check the Nitro crew too), Sal Masekela: @ImSalMasekela, Andy Macdonald: @andymacdonald, Brian Deegan: @mmgeneral, Nitro Circus: @Nitro_Circus or Erik Roner of the Nitro Crew: @ErikRoner. Check 'em out!

It looks like I need to come up with some money hunny because X-Games is all me next year!